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Knowledge Base

Why are the stats different to my server log analysis?

StatCounter.Com can produce far different results to standard log file analysis. This is not surprising as our system is designed to track browsers NOT server requests. This can result in a significantly lower count than standard log file analysis. But it offers a more realistic figure of the visitors to your website and far more detail and it is provided in real-time!

So how do they differ?

A big factor is the placement of the StatCounter tracking code. You can use StatCounter to only track the pages you want by simply placing it on the pages you want to track. Log file analysis will track all server requests by default.

If you have very large, slow loading pages it is recommended to place the tracking code closer to the top of the page instead of the bottom. Or a visitor may exit your page before the page finishes loading and the tracking script will never have been loaded.

Framed websites can cause a big problem for log file analysis resulting in an over-inflated count. When a visitor visits a singe page that could often be recorded as 3 visits - loading the main frame, a side frame and a footer. StatCounter does not have this problem.

Cached pages are another huge problem for log file analysis this time resulting in a very poor undercount of visitors. Often your own local ISP will keep a cache of many websites you visit regularly. This speeds up your use of the web - unfortunately no server request is made to your website when this happens. And your visit will go uncounted. This does not happen with StatCounter with the use of javascript and a random variable each time.

Web Proxies - many users, most noticeably AOL users access the web through a web proxy. Their ip address can change on each request to your website so log file analysis could not accurately count your unique visitors. StatCounter does both - we use a simple cookie and the user's ip address.

Robots - the requests made to your website by robots will be recorded in your log files but it will not be recorded by StatCounter.

Overall StatCounter provides a far more detailed, accurate count and tracking of behavior of the 'real' visitors to your website than standard log file analysis.

Answers to the majority of questions we receive can be found here in the knowledge base.